Family Accuses Mississippi Jailers of Torturing Man and Leaving Him to Die, Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit

A Mississippi man who was arrested on a misdemeanor trespassing charge last May and died a day after being booked into the county jail was allegedly beat and tortured before being left to die in his cell, according to a lawsuit filed by the man’s family.

The family of 36-year-old Harvey Hill filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court on Tuesday, according to Mississippi Today.

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Hill was booked into the Madison County Jail on May 6, 2018, and that same day, he reportedly got into an altercation with another inmate during mealtime. According to the suit, jail employees intervened in the altercation, handcuffed Hill, beat him, pepper sprayed him and then threw him into his cell—where he was found unresponsive the next day. Hill was taken Merit Central Hospital in Jackson, Miss., where he was pronounced dead.

Derek Sells—an attorney with Cochran firm who is representing the family—told Mississippi Today: “We say that was a custom and a practice that was tolerated by Madison County Detention personnel. When one of the guards took offense at what prisoners did, they would beat them. And they would punish them in cruel and unusual ways in order to try and set an example.”

Madison County, its sheriff Randy Tucker and several other jail employees are named as defendants in the lawsuit. According to a spokesman for the Madison County Sheriff, as of Tuesday afternoon, the department had not been served with a lawsuit. The department declined to comment on the pending litigation.

The family attorneys told Mississippi Today that they have secured eyewitnesses who saw the beating, and they believe video of the incident exists.

Carlos Moore, another attorney representing the family, said the misdemeanor charge for which Hill was arrested would have yielded him at most a $300 to $500 fine.